OT - East Lansing Police need our help. On Facebook.

So we're a little slow on this one, my fellow MGoBloggers. Deadspindid the story and it has been picked up by just about everybody since, including every one of our rival blogs. I might let it go, but I was actually laughing out loud at this one, given one of my own posts on the MGoBoard within a few minutes of the B1G Championship Game broadcast.

The executive-summary version of the story if you haven't already seen it: The East Lansing Police Department's official Facebook page (why not?) posted a still image from the Fox Sports broadcast; it was a shot of the guy who is now the most beloved Sparty in the history of Michigan State University, holding up his own homemade sign saying "Burn the Couch" with a rose below. (It looks like an ELPD officer's cameraphone taking a photo of a tv in the coffee room at the station house. Lulz. Wonder if the ELPD is violating any Fox copyrights?) The rose at the bottom of the guy's sign sort of looked like it had been chewed on by Charles Woodson for 16 years and then spit out, but this isn't the time or place for art criticism. It probably wasn't part of a secret signal to "Commence burning on my signal, fellow students!" Anyway, in the wake of certain as-yet unidentified citizens of East Lansing actually, uh, burning some as-yet unidentified couches, the men and women of the ELPD are on the job, and they want to know, from the Facebook scene, who knows the individual who held up the sign. In Indianapolis. On national tv. So let the hilarity begin. If the ELPD can post the photo, I suppose I can too:

So far my favorite post from the ELPD Facebook page was the one from the guy who said that he thought he knew the person with the sign. "Bronson Pinchot." Not quite sure why that one struck me as so funny; maybe because the potential for humor at the expense of the ELPD was so wildly rich, I couldn't decide. There are about a hundred uproariously funny comments at Deadspin, 11W; you name it.

I'll hand it to the ELPD; it only took them about 300 sarcastic posts on their Facebook wall to correct the grammatically idiotic "You're tip can remain confident" to "Your tip can remain condfident." Because hell, I sure wouldn't want to be known as the rat who gave up the name of a guy sitting in expensive seats in a domed arena on national television. I wouldn't even want to be known as the person suffering national ridicule for misspelling "your."

Personally, I sort of need to know if the Fox Sports cameramen, directors and producers will also be questioned for their possible role in any incitment of arson in Cedar Village, because of my own aforementioned post, which might also be mistaken as part of the vast Spartan couch-burning conspiracy:

Naturally, I wanted to use this space to clarify what was a completely wordless post on my part on the evening of December 7, when I was at home, watching the game on tv and oh by the way Iive 69 miles away from Cedar Village and I don't know a single MSU student. Just to be clear about that.

What I meant by posting nothing more than this Google Images-selected photo of a burning couch on the MGoBoard, was to say to all of my good friends in East Lansing; let this photo stand as a stark warning, that burning couches should not be a longstanding tradition following big wins and losses in Spartan athletic contests because somebody could get hurt and it is not nearly so riotously fun as it looks. So please don't do it. I ask you to please cooperate with the fine men and women of the East Lansing Police Department in this regard. Thank you and have a pleasant and peaceful evening.

"This is a program in transition, this is a program that's going back to hard-nosed, big-boy football," Brandon said. "We're in the process of putting the pieces in place to afford us to do that consistently and effectively.

If somebody wants to suggest, "this won't end well," I'd agree and say that I very much hope it won't end well. I'd like to think that this police department idea of questioning a fan seen holding a sign on a football broadcast will end in a charred, smoking, smelly ruin of embarassment for the ELPD. I don't see how it can end any other way.

So, maybe they can sue some schmuck who makes $10 an hour and blew his Christmas budget on the Big Ten Championship Game; they can blame him for all of the other idiots who burned couches. Like they are going to ever collect the money.

This may be the first time in my life I have ever felt sorry for a Sparty fan.

2. I hope to god no one identifies the man holding the sign. It was clearly meant in jest, but in our hyper-sensitive society, where everything someone does that is even a touch out of line is a potential crime, the cops now are looking for a scapegoat.

3. I also hope that the person holding the sign gets a hold of a good attorney, so that if he is identified and charged with a trumped up nonsense charge, he will go free.

I am probably crossing the no-politics line here, but this is the nation we live in today. You are not as free as you think.

I thought it was hilarious and also a bit annoying that on the channel 7 news last night the headline for the riots was "Spartans reputation damaged." No ABC. This is exactly their reputation. They riot and do stupid shit and the whole country knows it. Don't try to sugar coat it.

"Michigan Defense" is dominating everything, in every aspect of life. That's a rough definition.